Edmeston Central School District - Fund Balance (2020M-1)

Issued Date
March 13, 2020

[read complete report - pdf]

Audit Objective

Determine whether the Board and District officials effectively managed fund balance.

Key Findings

  • The Board appropriated approximately $929,100 in fund balance from 2016-17 through 2018-19 and did not use any of that amount to fund operations because of generated operating surpluses.
  • As of June 30, 2019, surplus fund balance totaled approximately $972,000, exceeding the statutory limit by approximately $535,000 or 5 percentage points.
  • When unused appropriated fund balance was added back to the surplus fund balance, it totaled over $1.1 million, exceeding the statutory limit by approximately $680,500 or 6 percentage points.

Key Recommendations

  • Adopt budgets that include reasonable estimates for appropriations and the amount of fund balance that will be used to fund operations.
  • Reduce surplus fund balance to comply with the statutory limit and use excess funds in a manner beneficial to taxpayers.

District officials generally agreed with our recommendations.